Waiting for OOXML
At the time this post is being written, there is still no news of the final version of Ecma 376/DIS-ISO 29500, aka OOXML. I guess we’ll have to wait until midnight, today, Geneva time to have it. Yet some also claim that the deadline was midnight yesterday on the First of April. The situation being what it is, I have decided to write a small song, and not to sing it because I sing very poorly. It will be up to Pieter (and its incredible guitar) to record it. The words below are to be singed on the music of the Doors, « Waiting for the Sun ».
At last comes the moment when truth shall come out
Standing on the brink of outrage
Waiting for OOXML (3x)
Can’t you still read it now that the Spring has come.
And its time to push it to unwanting users.
Waiting for OOXML (3x)
Waiting…. waiting…. waiting…. waiting…. (2x)
Waiting for it to – be published
Waiting for it to -really work
Waiting for it to – locking you all
Waiting for you to – tell me what went wrong
This is the worst standard I’ve ever known.
Yeah! (riff 8x)
Enjoy your week-end!
Nice one! I could almost imagine this being sang as an angry sarcastic sounding kinda rock track with the guitar going really crazy by the end…
Though.. I’m an electronic music guy..
I happen to have seen Bruce Perens say on slashdot how “Microsoft essentially killed OpenDocument” by making it “redundant as a standard and showed that people who lobby for its use lose their jobs for their efforts”.
I really hope he’s wrong. It can be said the other way around, OOXML was made redundant long ago by ODF which is a standard too. And if that’s not good enough (might not be, actually), then screw ISO, let the market ultimately decide which is better – meaning, the battle for market mind share must be continued. ODF has inherent advantages that must be known.
But I’m preaching to the choir.. Just.. a word of encouragement.
Cheers
libervisco,
I think that we still have to see the death or demise of ODF. To be sure, there are strong pressures against it, but instead of trying to make a point of theory, I’d just mention real “business cases” as they call it that show that ODF isn’t going anywhere but up:
- South Africa, India, Italy, Norway, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Korea… And that’s on a country level. I don’t list the regions (Extremadura…), the companies and the administrations adopting it now, even after OOXML was stamped as an ISO standard. So I think the future will definitely be interesting. But think of the ISO story as nothing more – and nothing less- than a bloody draw.
Thanks!
Charles.
Charles, Something even stranger to note. For a brief time yesterday, the “final” text of OOXML was posted on the SC34 web site. This was the post-BRM version with all the edits, the version that was due a month after the BRM. It was only up for a few hours before it was pulled for unknown reasons. But it was there long enough for me to download. Let me know if anyone wants a copy.
Rob,
I am interested, please send it to me!
Thanks,
Charles.